Teaching students how to track words from left to right and use one-to-one correspondence is the first step in teaching them to read. By providing them with the ability to read the correct number of words on a page, we are preventing omissions and additions to sentences. This is the first step you should be taking with non-readers. Welcome to my Teaching Children How to Read Blog Series. This is your first stop!

When I first started teaching kindergarten, I quickly realized that I was the sole person responsible for teaching these children how to read. And that’s when the panic set in! Where do you even start? Where is my step-by-step manual? Guess what? There is none! So I buckled down and read every blog post, looked at every teaching manual, and worked my behind off to figure this all out. I’m putting everything I learned and put into practice into a series of blog posts. I’ll break down each strategy and show you how to teach it and examples of ways to practice it.

What is One to One Correspondence?

One to one correspondence is when children say the same number of words that are printed on the page. They understand that printed text and spoken word have a connection.

How Do We Teach Children About One to One Correspondence?

The best way to help our new readers practice tracking words is to have them touch or put a finger under each word as they say it.

To introduce this concept, we practice counting the words on the page. If there are 4 words on the page, then we should only be saying 4 words. Once children understand that connection, we practice touching each word as we say it.

One way to make this fun and engaging is to introduce “Reading Fingers.” Provide a prop to encourage them to track each word. I personally love to use witch fingers as a reminder to touch each word. Eyeball rings are another great option!

Practicing One to One Correspondence in Guided Reading Groups

Small groups and guided reading are a great time to practice tracking words. Using hands-on activities before you jump into reading is the perfect way to practice this skill. I love these Tracking Word Cards.

These cards come in sets that each follow a pattern. There are also picture clues for the words that are not sight words. This allows children to focus solely on practicing one to one correspondence, without having to worry about decoding unknown words. These cards work great for non-readers and children who are reading on a level AA-D.

The dots underneath each word are a great visual to help children with one to one correspondence. Watch as one of my students uses these cards during a guided reading warm-up.

This strategy should be taught first to your non-readers before any other strategy. You can (and should) teach this while teaching also teaching phonics skills (FREE Phonics Pacing Guide HERE).

If you’re looking for some activities to help with this strategy, make sure to grab this resource now!

Up Next-Using Picture Clues

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Are you tired of hearing “I’m done, now what?” when your students complete a task?  Establishing this one routine for fast finishers in the classroom will not only make your life sooooo much easier, but it will also maximize learning time. Keep reading because I’m about to share my favorite teacher tip with you, and it’s called “I’m Done” folders!

In this post, I’m going to explain what my system for fast finishers is, how to set it up, how to introduce it to students, keep it differentiated, and more!

What Are “I’m Done, Now What?” Folders?

I’m Done Folders are simply that, folders that contain work for students to complete when they finish an assignment. Simple right? And with these few tips, I can help you create a system that goes smoothly from the start of the year all the way until the end.

How To Set Up “I’m Done, Now What” Folders

Provide each child with a folder and a place to keep them. My students worked at tables, so they each had a seat sack on their chairs. Their I’m Done, Now What Folders were kept in those seat sacks. This ensured that once they completed a task they had easy access to their I’m Done work. It also helps to eliminate a lot of unnecessary moving around the room, since children do spend a lot of time at their tables.

I used a large incentive chart to keep track of how many packets each student completed. I write their names down the left-hand side and place stickers in each space once they complete a packet. Later on, I’ll share how to provide incentives to students to encourage them to actually work on completing their given packets.

Creating Work for Fast Finishers

Okay, so you have your folders, you’ve designated a spot for the kids to keep them, and you know how you track their work. Now let’s move on to actually creating the packets that will go inside of these I’m Done Now What? folders.

Here are my criteria:

• No-Prep Worksheets: Remember, this system is to make your life easier, not harder. Look for no-prep resources that you can just print, staple, and put inside of a folder

• No Cutting: You don’t want worksheets that require any cutting. Look for sheets that can be completed with just a pencil and/or crayons. The reason is, children will have limited time in spurts to work on these printables. With cutting activities, it is easy for children to lose pieces and waste time looking for them later on

• Repetitive Directions: Look for printables that have the same directions on each page. This will allow you to model one page for the students and then have them complete the rest independently. If you include printables that have a different set of directions on each page, children might need help as they reach each new page, which prevents them from working independently.

If you follow these suggestions, you will be able to create packets that not only allow children to work independently, but also practice key phonics and math skills

Differentiating Your I’m Done Folders

As with everything else, differentiation is important with your I’m Done Now What Folders.

Why You Should Differentiate Your No-Prep Packets

• The Pace At Which Children Work: Consider who is going to have more time to work on these packets, verse who will barely have an opportunity. Use this knowledge to determine the number of printables you include in someone’s packet. Children who are constantly completing their assignments should have larger packets. Our children who struggle to complete given assignments should have a much smaller packet. These children will not have as many opportunities to work on this, and we don’t want them to feel as if they are falling behind.
• The Skills They Need to Work On: Each student’s packet should be focused on a skill they need a little more support on, yet can still complete independently. Use your progress monitoring data to determine which skills you want each child to work on.

I use these Data Tracking Assessments and Digital Tracker to help me determine which phonics and math skills I want each child to work on.

When it comes to setting expectations for your I’m Done, Now What Folders, you want to model and remind at the start of the year. Before students begin any task, remind them that when they finish, they should take out their folders. Model the way you expect them to work on these tasks. If you continue to remind students of perfect opportunities to pull out these packets, it will eventually become a habit.

Lastly, you want to provide incentives to your students to actually encourage them to do additional work. I implemented a reward system for the completion of three I’m Done Now What packets. And since my packets were all differentiated to meet the needs of each individual, all students had a fair chance at the prizes.

I used a large incentive chart to track the completion of each packet. Each student’s name is written down the left side, and the number of packets along the top.

With each completed packet, they get a sticker next to their name. Once they complete three packets, they get to pick a prize from the prize box.

Here’s a quick video where I explain all about I’m Done Folders:

If you implement this classroom management plan in your room, I am confident that you will not regret it!

You can grab a full year of Kindergarten I’m Done Phonics Worksheets here!

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 Eagle Eye teaches students to look at the picture clues to help figure out the word. This skill is necessary for students with limited letter sound knowledge. It allows them to use illustrations to support their reading.

Lips the Fish teaches students to look at the first letter and get their lips ready to make the sound. This skill is great for children who have learned their letter sounds individually but aren’t quite ready to start blending them.
This is an important skill because it builds upon Eagle Eye. For example, if the tricky word is “plane” and they look at the picture to help them, they might say “airplane.” However, Lips the Fish encourages them to use the initial consonant to correctly decode the word.
If you’re looking for more ways to incorporate Lips the Fish into your groups, check this out.

Chunky Monkey teaches students to look for chunks in the word. This skill is great for students who are blending sounds in CVC words and showing an interest in sounding out longer words. For example, they may not know the word “small” but if they can read “all” and add the “sm” sound to the front, they can now read the word in its entirety. 

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Having some lamps around your classroom can really help to create a warm learning environment. Those bright classroom lights can be harsh and even a trigger for some students. I’m not saying you should never have them on, but there are certain times of the day that using lamps rather than over head lights is ideal.
You can get some basic table lamps, colorful standing lamps, or my favorite, the classic white lamp that when knocked over doesn’t break!

Another excellent way to make your classroom a fun and cozy learning environment is to have a selection of pillows available. Children can use these to sit or lay on during independent reading time, for flexible seating purposes, if they finish an assessment early and want to put their head down…the possibilities are endless and kids love them.
There are so many adorable pillows available on amazon. Check out some of my favs below (clickable images)

Play-doh is a great thing to have handy in your classroom. You can use it for some hands on centers like Letter Formation Boards, Number Formation Boards and CVC Word Building Boards. But you can also use it in other ways too. I love to use play doh as a brain break. If you are working with a student and you feel they need a minute to step away from the assignment, pull out the play-doh and set a timer for them. It’s also a great stress reliever and calm down tool.

The perfect tool for making printables more durable. I love printing centers on card stock and then laminating them. I also love printing anything that I want parents to hold onto on card stock.

Speaking of making things more durable, having my handy dandy personal sized laminator ready to go is a must! I can’t tell you how many times I have to laminate something in a pinch and someone has jammed the machine or there’s no more lamination left and the office has to order it. Having the type of personality that I do, that just doesn’t work….when I want to laminate…I MUST LAMINATE. I personally use the Scotch Thermal Laminator and it works beautifully! I also came across these laminating pouches that are significantly cheaper than other brands and work just as good, if not better!

Don’t feel like laminating? No problem, grab some dry erase pouches and you essentially have the same concept. I love to put small group warm up activities in these and let them just use them over and over until they master the skill. It also eliminates standing at the copy machine for hours upon hours.

Lastly, grab yourself a paper tray. I love to sort my weekly worksheets in these. It makes my day super easy as I just grab the “daily” stack and I’m good to go. It also makes for great organization when you have to call out sick and it was unplanned. Everything your substitute will need will be in the daily slot.

Do you think these things would be put to good use in your classroom? Here’s your shopping list with links to Amazon:

Drawer Tower
Paper Tray

Make sure to pin this image so you can refer back to it whenever you need:

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When I first started teaching, I wasn’t very comfortable with progress monitoring. I didn’t know where to start, what materials to use, or how to collect and store data. This obviously led to a lot of pitfalls in my teaching abilities. Creating groups was difficult, writing report cards took an insane amount of time, my IEP reports were vague, and much more. I quickly realized that if I wanted to use data to drive instruction, I had to begin collecting it from day one. Since then, I have worked tirelessly to perfect my progress monitoring tools and assessments. I have seen a tremendous increase in my students learning, the more I perfected my data collection process. It is directly connected to students success. So here are some of the things I have learned during my progress monitoring journey.

Progress monitoring is a term used to describe assessing students in a way that allows you to track their growth in specific areas. By progress monitoring, an educator can see specific areas of growth and areas of need for individual students and/or whole group.

• Understanding Student Abilities: By collecting data on each student you can get an understanding of their academic abilities. It will help you track trends for students. For example, student A may have a strength in math but struggles with phonics skills. Or student B is great with memorizing skills but struggles to apply them out of isolation.
• Tracking Progress with Grade Level Skills: Backwards planning is important when thinking about progress monitoring. Ask yourself: Where do you want your students to be at the end of the year? What skills should they have been exposed to and have mastered? After you have fleshed out these responses, find assessments that target these skills. From the beginning of the year, test students on this, even if you haven’t taught it yet. This will help you track progress. You will be able to see which students have mastered specific skills and can move on, and which students need targeted instruction for certain skills. I use this baseline bundle to help me track a full years worth of growth all in one spot. It is perfect because as a special education pull out teacher, I service students in grades k-2.

• Data Driven Instruction: After all of your assessments have been completed, take a closer look at the results. Look at them on an individual level and on a whole group  level. Use this data to drive further instruction. Specific things to look for include:
• Which skills are the class as a whole struggling with?
• Which skills have the class as a whole mastered?
• Which skills should you focus on next?
• Which skills need some more time and can be spiraled into centers or word work stations?
• Which students are ahead and need to be challenged?
• Which students are struggling with basic skills and need small group intervention?
• Which students are not making growth?
• Which students should be flagged for RTI?
• How can you use this information to differentiate lessons, homework and future class assignments?

• Creating Small Groups: Do you have small groups during the day? Think about what you are targeting in these groups and then use the data collected to appropriately place students. For example, during center time I work with a small group to focus specifically on phonics. These groups are determined by looking at my data, and I also use the data to determine which skills to practice with them.
• Flagging Students for RTI: If you are testing students on the same skills and notice that they are making little to small progress, you must begin intervention with them. Similarly, students who are falling behind in meeting classroom expectations should be flagged for intervention.
• Flagging Students for Evaluations: Have you provided RTI within the classroom and still see little to no growth? Continue to collect data on these students and reach out to other professionals within your building about next steps. This student could qualify for pull-out services, and if these next steps are not successful, starting the evaluation process may be beneficial to them.
• Writing Report Cards: Writing report card comments can be a challenging task, but it is our responsibility to be clear, specific and helpful in our comments to parents. If you are progress monitoring throughout each marking period, you can simply refer to this data in your comments. Telling parents that their child knows “most of their sight words” isn’t a useful comment. However, telling them that their child knows “70 out of 100 sight words” helps parents have a better understanding of their students academic standing. 

• Writing IEP Reports: If you are responsible for writing IEP reports, or providing your special education teacher with information on a child, having concrete data and numbers is very important. We are our students advocates so we must be knowledgeable on their growth and their struggles.  By referring to your data, you can easily paint a very clear picture of your student.
• Holding Conferences: Parent Teacher Conferences can be an uncomfortable situation, especially if you aren’t prepared. Collecting data and having evidence of growth and areas that are challenging, will make the task easier. 

Progress monitoring should happen from week 1. You want to utilize every day of the school year to help students grow. In order to do that, you have to have a sense of where they are and where they need to be. Though the use of different assessments, you should be collecting data consistently throughout each marking period. Additionally, if you are using a baseline assessment throughout the year to monitor growth in specific skills (the same assessment multiple times), then you should conduct that at the start of the year, and at the end of each marking period. This will allow you to see just how far they’ve come each marking period.

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1) Extra Pump: Having an extra pump to keep at work means less stress. It is one less thing to worry about, and what happens if you forget it?  I was lucky enough to get my pump for free from my insurance company (if you haven’t checked that out with your insurance yet give them a call). That’s why I didn’t feel bad about spending some extra money on a second pump. I went on eBay and purchased a used pump for MUCH cheaper than the store price. Sounds kind of icky right? I then went on Amazon and purchased brand new tubing, flanges, and membranes from Amazon for only $14, so I was only using the used base and all of the hygiene related pieces were brand new!

2) Hands Free Bra: This will become your best friend! You can eat while pumping, write lessons plans, make phone calls…anything! I even used this to pump while doing my hair and make-up in the mornings! I tried a bunch of them but I LOVE this one the best because it adjusts to your ever changing body. As you start to lose the baby weight you can adjust the bra accordingly. It also kept the bottles upright and the openings didn’t sag as the bottles filled with milk.

3) Nursing Cover: So being a teacher we often don’t have a space to pump other than our classrooms. And with that comes the risk of a students walking in, the janitor, another teacher friend, etc. As teachers, we’re so used to the open door policy it can be hard to find a private moment. Trust me I know….not only am I a teacher, but as a special education teacher I share my space with 3 other teachers, who don’t share the sa/;p/;p/me prep as me. That means, when it’s my time to pump, they have students with them. My nursing cover made this a possibility and allowed me to feel comfortable. People would actually come to talk to me while I was pumping and they had no idea what I was doing, one said it just looked like I was about to do an art project! Slap a sign on your door that says you’re busy, position an easel or some bins in front of you, put that cover on and you are good to go!

4) Breast Milk Bags: You can pump directly into storage bags and then bring those bags to the babysitter or daycare. The Medela bags are great because they come with an adapter and slits within the bag to “hook” onto the adapter. However, they did leak on me a few times so I ended up using the Target bags and cutting my own “slits” into them to hook onto the Medela adapter.

5) Insulated Bottle Bag: You’re going to need a place to put that liquid gold during the day and on your way home. Insulated bottle bags are a great way to keep your breast milk cold. It also makes keeping your breastmilk in a shared refrigerator a little more private.

6) Bamboobies Nursing Pads: Avoid embarrasing leaks or even the anxiety of worrying that you are leaking, by wearing nursing pads. The disposable pads can be bunchy, noticeable and just down right uncomfortable. Bamboobies washable pads were just heavenly (for real, they are so soft and feel so good). They were super soft and they didn’t leave any outline so no one could tell I was wearing them. HIGHLY recommend!

Talk to Administration & Co-Workers

Let your boss know that you will be pumping at work. Although you don’t have to share this information it will make things easier for you if they plan an IEP meeting during your prep, or have a professional development day with no scheduled breaks. Then you can just gently remind your administration that you will have to step out to pump. I also suggest letting some co-workers know, especially those on your team, so that they know you won’t be available during preps or grade team meetings. People are generally very accepting of this and will give you all of the privacy and accommodations you need.

Let Your Body Adjust to Your New Schedule

Upon returning to work your body is most likely used to nursing every 2-3 hours, which means that every 2-3 hours you are going to start to fill up and feel very uncomfortable if you don’t pump. Unfortunately, we’ll be held to a tighter schedule now and not have the flexibility. The good news is, the body is an amazing thing and will adjust to our new schedule…if we let it. Deal with the discomfort for a few days and watch as your body re-adjusts to your schedule. Learn how to hand express so that if it gets too uncomfortable, you can go into the bathroom and relieve some of that pain.

Have Snacks & Water Handy

Pumping makes your hungry and thirsty! Keep those snacks and water bottles handy. Granola bars, trail mix, pretzels are all snacks you can buy in bulk and just keep in your room for when the hunger hits!

Have a Clean Space to Pump

As I mentioned earlier, I share a room with 3 other teachers…so my space is super limited. Which means I had to pump at the same table I was teaching kids…not the most sanitary option. I kept lysol wipes nearby and just simply wiped down everything before settling down to pump.

Don’t Kill Yourself Keeping Parts Clean 

You don’t have to clean your parts in between each use if you keep them refrigerated. Grab a Tupperware that will fit your pump parts, and store them in the fridge in between uses. This will save you a ton of time and energy. 

I remember losing sleep (and it’s not like I was getting enough sleep that I had any to spare) over how I would manage pumping as a teacher….but I did it for 9 months and it became such a normal part of my day that I didn’t even think twice about it. Trial and error is key…find a system that works for you and pump on mamas!

Want to grab any of the supplies I mentioned earlier? Shop here:

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Now here is my favorite part. The tracker that I record all of the data on in the beginning of the year, is the same tracker I will use until they are ready to go to the next grade. I will keep ALL of their information on that one piece of paper! By doing this, I can easily look at it and see what areas are their strengths and what areas are their weaknesses. When it is time to write report cards, I pull out the tracker and BOOM-all of the information I need is right there…and I mean specific information. I’m not saying “Johnny knows most of his letter sounds” I am saying “Johnny is showing progress in his letter sounds. He now knows 24 out of 26 sounds (he is struggling with /q/ and /m/), which is 10 more letter sounds than he knew last marking period.” I mean doesn’t that sound like a teacher that knows what she’s doing? (wink, wink). This is also used to drive parent-teacher conference conversations, and really go in depth on key skills with parents.  Whether you are a general education teacher, co-teacher, special education teacher or interventionist, this baseline is for you!

Using the Baseline and Tracker as a General Education Teacher

So as a general education teacher it can be really challenging to remember your special education students IEP goals, especially since you’re also trying to remember that Mary isn’t taking the bus today, Peter can’t sit at the peanut table at lunch, Joey needs an extra copy of the homework, and the 9 million other things that are swirling in your brains on a daily basis. BUT, that doesn’t mean it’s not important, it is SO important. So what I would do is, find the skills in my baseline that were connected to my special education students goals and highlight them on their tracker. That way I could check periodically, refresh my memory, and see where they stood with it. Constantly touching base with myself and holding myself accountable for targeting those goals in the classroom. Also, when it came time to write those dreaded IEP reports, I would use the data from the baseline assessment to give very specific information about their progress in the classroom. I was always told that I wrote such detailed reports and no other teachers did that, and the reality is, my reports took very little time to write because I was simply taking the data from my tracker and putting it into sentences. 

Just by quickly looking at the tracker above I can gather great insight about this student (Michelle). Here are some things I would note as the teacher:

Based on the September 2nd Results:
*Michelle has an okay sense of uppercase letter identification-I don’t believe she will need intervention, unless no gains are made by next assessment.
* Michelle has a good sense of lower case letter identification-no need to provide extra support in this area at this time.
*Michelle has very little knowledge on letter sounds– Keep this in mind when you come to this unit and consider beginning classroom interventions on this skill.
*Michelle has little to no knowledge of CVC words and syllables-Focus on the pre-requisite skills needed to access this knowledge, such as letter sounds

Based on the November 4th Results:
*Michelle has mastered letter identification-there is no need to test her on this moving forward.
*Michelle is making adequate gains with letter sounds-no need to continue intervention, but keep an eye on this to make sure she doesn’t slide back
*Michelle is making slow progress with CVC words-continue to work with her on this skill. Place her in a word work group with other students who need to build their CVC skills.
*Michelle has made almost no progress with syllables-time to start intervention with this subject.

-and so on and so forth-

Each assessment comes with more skills than you will ever need to assess. The assessment pages and tracker are customizable. Each skill is on a separate page, which allows you to print and copy ONLY the skills you want to use. Additionally, the tracker comes pre-made (for those ambitious teachers who do want to use every skill) and with an editable version. The editable version allows you to type in the skills in the order you want to assess!

Kindergarten Baseline Assessment HERE
First Grade Baseline Assessment HERE
Second Grade Baseline Assessment HERE
K-2 Bundle HERE

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